Facelift | Necklift

Your total price will vary based on the details of your unique surgical plan, including whether you choose to combine facelift and neck lift procedures. Dr. Xu’s team will give you a more accurate estimate after meeting with you and learning about your objectives.

We will provide you with detailed instructions to follow, including how to care for your incisions and manage any discomfort, when to schedule follow-up appointments, and when you can return to work and resume your workout regimen.

We recommend planning for at least one to two weeks of downtime after your facelift and neck lift, during which you must avoid strenuous activities, rest when you feel tired, and sleep with your head elevated. It may take several weeks for the post-surgical swelling and bruising to fade fully.

A lower facelift addresses aging in the mid- to lower face. In contrast, a neck lift focuses specifically on tightening loose skin and contouring the region below the jawline and along the neck.

Be prepared to discuss your goals – what areas you would most like to address and what facial aging changes bother you the most. Think about your priorities and also whether you have any particular concerns.  I always find it helpful when patients bring in a younger photo of themselves that they like or find particularly flattering, both as a blueprint for what they hope to restore their appearance to, as well as a way of understanding their individual aesthetics and beauty goals. If inclined, it’s also nice to bring someone with you as a support system and a 2nd pair of eyes and ears. If you have had prior facial surgery, it is helpful to know the details of what you had done and bring prior medical records (operative reports) if possible.

Make sure you have the adequate support you need at home for your recovery. Dr. Xu will review the details of everything you will need to know for this during your Pre Op Appointment. Don’t undertake any major life changes or projects right before or at the time of surgery so you can focus on your recovery. Make sure that you are in a general state of wellness and good health from a physical, mental and emotional standpoint. If you have high blood pressure, this needs to be optimized and normal prior to surgery. No smoking for at least 3 months beforehand. No heavy drinking. Medical issues need to be managed, such as diabetes if present. Do not start any extreme diets or fasting. Make sure you have adequate protein intake before and after surgery. If you are using any topical skin treatments or getting lasers, fillers, or Botox, some of this may need to be stopped prior to surgery. It is very common to be both nervous and excited before surgery. Maintain a positive mindset and try to relax knowing you are in good hands!

This depends on how much you are having done and can range from 3 hours for a mini facelift to 6-8 hours or more for a full face and neck lift with or without the addition of other procedures such as blepharoplasty or facial fat grafting which offers a more comprehensive rejuvenation of the face and even improves skin texture and quality.

There is no typical age, as everyone’s faces change and age in various ways. Some people may see more skin sag and tissue descent in the lower face, whereas others may experience more obvious aging around the cheeks or eyes, or in the neck. There is a wide spectrum when it comes to how faces change with time. For some people who have significant weight loss or genetic propensities for facial aging, they may benefit from a gentle restorative facelift in their 40’s. However, the most common age group typically coming in for a facelift are patients in their 50-60’s. Patients in their 50’s are typically those who are seeing mild to moderate changes and want to “stay on top of things” and get a refresh that is not a dramatic change that would make it apparent that they had surgery. Patients in their 60’s are usually seeing more obvious changes and a facelift would result in a more powerful rejuvenation result, and they have waited to have it done until they really felt it to be necessary. Some people may not be in their 70’s until they feel compelled to seek a facelift, and they are also good candidates so long as they are also in good physical health.

A traditional facelift involves a standard amount of surgical dissection and lifting of the skin which gives the surgeon full access to the underlying facial anatomy in order to re-position and tighten the deeper structures of the face; a facelift typically also extends along the jawline and includes the neck. A mini facelift involves shorter and less-extensive incisions as well as tissue dissection. As a result, the amount of “lift” is also less. A mini-facelift is suitable for someone who has only mild facial aging and does not require the full extent of a facelift surgery; they may benefit from a more minimal approach and only need a smaller amount of tightening focused along the sides of the face.

• Nothing can come close to offering the powerful and dramatic rejuvenation that a facelift offers. However, there are newer nonsurgical approaches that have continued to be perfected over time. 
• One tangential way to “lift” the face is by using filler to restore volume where a patient has areas that are sunken and have lost youthful volume; this in turn can “lift the facial skin but only as a subtle secondary effect. It’s also known as a “liquid facelift” but it does not take the place of a surgical facelift. In fact, it can be overdone and patients risk having the face OVER-filled with fillers when this method is relied on too heavily; this may be the case when it is offered and performed by providers who are trained only in fillers and are not able to perform facelifts themselves, thus because they don’t have that skillset and are lacking it in their toolkit of treatment options , they don’t know to offer it to patients and omit correctly transition them to a facelift when it is time. 
• Another emerging option for a nonsurgical facelift is something called a threadlift, where barbed sutures are placed under the skin and looped along the tissues, then tightened along an arc to suspect the tissues upward; this mimics the “pull” that would be achieved by a facelift, but can be fraught with issues, notably that the results are not permanently but only temporary. In addition, there can be scar tissue formed in the face which makes a future facelift much more challenging and potentially more dangerous.

There is no magic to this and the hands of time will continue turning. A facelift will reset the clock, but it cannot stop the clock. Natural aging will continue, but it is also recommended to optimize the aesthetics of your face by practicing good skin care and protecting your skin from the sun. There are other nonsurgical modalities which can be recommended during a consultation with a skin care specialist that can keep your skin looking vibrant and fresh, which only enhances the results of a facelift. One thing that is very detrimental to skin quality and the aging process is smoking or nicotine intake in any form (patches, gum, e-cigarettes). Nicotine will create a more weathered appearance to your skin and face because it constricts the blood vessels which supply oxygen and nutrients to your skin. In general, avoiding intense sun exposure is also helpful to prevent the formation of wrinkles and lines. There may also be adjunct treatments with Botox that minimize muscle strain in your face and preserve the youthful refresh you get with a facelift; each person’s face will be different in this regard.

You will have swelling and bruising in the 1st week and into the 2nd week. This will fluctuate and how quickly it goes away varies by individual. Typically, most patients are “restaurant ready” by 2 weeks after surgery.

Recovery happens in phases, and depends on the individual’s own genetic capacity for healing as well as underlying risk factors and overall health. In general, you will be most swollen and bruised in the first week and this fades into the second week. Pain is not significant and can be managed with over the counter medications and on occasion require prescription pain meds. You may feel stiff and sore into the 2nd week, but most patients are “restaurant ready” and well enough to return to work after 2 weeks. For patients with a desk job, they can return after 1 week if feeling well. In terms of exercise, you should avoid strenuous activity or any heavy lifting for 4-6 weeks.

You can start gentle exercise at 2 weeks such as walking, but nothing that increases your heart rate too much until 4 weeks, at which time you can start more moderate activities (light weightlifting. No strenuous workouts or intense cardio until 6 weeks after surgery, at which time you will have no activity restrictions.

This depends on what you do for a living. Factors to consider: how intense is the nature of your work, whether you have a desk job or your work requires more physical activity, how public facing your work requires you to be, and your own pace of healing. (see last section to fill this in more, but in general, most people can return to a desk job after 2 weeks, and more active jobs usually 4 weeks.

It would be very high risk to get a facelift in the setting of active smoking. Dr. Xu does not perform facelifts on smokers because smoking or any type of nicotine consumption (patch, gum, e-cigarette) places you at high risk for wound healing problems where your skin may actually  turn black and die, creating a devastating complication and deformity that cannot be fixed. It is best to stop smoking for at least 6 weeks prior to a facelift. However, Dr. Xu may ask that you stop for 3-6 months, as the body tends to still have memory of prior smoking history, and patients with even a prior history of smoking tend to be at a higher risk of wound healing complications. (see some answers above to get into the science more about how nicotine constricts blood vessels, etc.)

The following risks of facelift surgery are uncommon but always possible and include: bleeding or hematoma, infection, wound healing problems, nerve injury, and poor scarring. An individual’s likelihood for experiencing these rare occurrences also correlates with whether they have underlying risk factors such as bleeding disorder, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, prior surgery with scarring of tissue planes, and tendency to form hypertrophic scars.